


Crimson Carpet

by robertstanion



Series: Hatchetober [5]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Autistic Hannah Foster, F/M, Fluffy Angst, Lexthan central fic whats this, M/M, The Black And White, a year after black friday, also religion, ethan just, ethan said give the sniggles a raise, for those who've kept up with my sniggle stanning bullshit, further explained in notes, hatchetober day 5: escape, he loves lex and hannah so much, implied! possessed ethan, its hella abstract i dont even know what i was saying, joking joking anyway, magic man with the funny words has returned and blessed ao3, mcnamander is there for literally two lines, pob is in here, pob rights, putting the me in metaphor, tws: blood. mentions a lot of blood a lot, you can tell ethan is gen z
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26844073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robertstanion/pseuds/robertstanion
Summary: Ethan’s been in The Black and White for too long, and if he has to see that denim clad asshole once more he may just lose it. He’s been through so much, and he just wants Lex, but a certain general of the us military and a furry friend of Hannah’s may be able to help
Relationships: Hannah Foster & Webby, Lex Foster/Ethan Green, Xander Lee/John McNamara (referenced)
Series: Hatchetober [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949110
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	Crimson Carpet

**Author's Note:**

> uh yeah there are a lot of metaphors and there are also pob rights in the chat. before we start here is jay's guide to the jay assigned sniggle names so:
> 
> Pob: Robert's Sniggle  
> Blush: Jaime's Sniggle  
> Cat: Kim's Sniggle  
> Stone: Jeff's Sniggle  
> Eldy: Lauren's Sniggle  
> Moon: Angela's Sniggle  
> Star: James' Sniggle  
> Spy: Curt's Sniggle
> 
> secondly: i have always headcanoned the floor of the black and white to be covered in blood??? for some reason?? anyways, i hope this weird piece of shit makes sense as we progress. there are also characters who appear for like a single line but that's it lads. the religion thing just mentions the holy trinity and how that affects the entire black and white with ethan and shit, and also someone towards the end can be seen as some sort of god like figure but,,, yeah
> 
> also i'm taking australian ethan to the grAVE BYE ENJOY MY STORY

There had been a metaphorical hole in his heart for as long as he’d been able to remember. Spending day in, day out in a realm between dimensions wasn’t easy. Everything looked the same, everything was the same, and you were a part of it now. The floor, though glassy underneath, had since become plagued with victim blood that prevented the soul from peering into Earth below them. It was a thick, dark consistency that left it’s unpreventable mark wherever the passer went. The Black and White wanted humanity to fear it, and it wasn’t going to stop until humanity knew.

And though there was a metaphorical hole in his heart, it wasn’t like he had anything to bind it together with twigs and vines. He had no way of parting the blood that blocked his only access to Earth, for every time he thought he was drawing near to humanity, to his family again, he was sucked back in to the dimension that acted as his prison cell for no other reason than permanent torture without a good excuse.

He’d only wanted to treat banana, and somehow, the universe had decided to punish him for _that._ Out of everything else he’d done, why did he have to get punished for taking a nine-year-old to go see a movie? It made no sense. He’d smoked weed, and done heavier drugs but only on a rare occasion, yet he wasn’t punished for those. He’d drank until his liver felt it were about to burst, and driven home under the influence that almost killed him and another pedestrian, though he wasn’t being punished for that. He’d shoplifted before, but only to ensure that his girls had the right necessities for when things were becoming too rough at home and they needed a quick getaway, but it wasn’t like that was a bad thing, right?

He loved his girls. He loved ‘em so much. There was baby banana split with her reddish-brown hair and vibrant eyes that twinkled when she talked about Webby, whatever the _fuck_ Webby was. She’d ramble for hours if she could. If him and her were alone, he’d get her changed for bed and they’d curl up on the couch as he braided her hair, and he’d fascinate her with how much she knew about spiders, out of anything. Spiders were creepy fucking bastards, yet hearing mini banana talking about them never failed to astound him. The thing, as well, was how she never seemed to run out of facts either, which not only baffled him because there were always limits to everything, but, in a way, it made him proud. He’d put it down as a hyperfixation, due to her autism, and he didn’t see her any other way. He loved her like she was the little sister he never got, and it didn’t change that he was trapped in this stupid realm.

Banana was someone’s sister, and he tried to ignore that fact. Thinking of her made his heart ache too badly. Her name had been Alexandra Foster, and she’d been _the_ most beautiful girl he ever set eyes on. He’d had hook-ups and short time flings before, and those people came and went, but Lex? Lex stayed. She had hair that was cut just past her shoulders that formed into waves that seemed to be altered by the phases of the moon, similar to those of the tide in the sea. Her eyes, they weren’t brown, but they were a delightful gold that powered the sun. Just like the colour of her eyes and what they’d be worth, she was a million dollars, and she was a rare find in Hatchetfield .

Somehow, he’d become hers, and somehow they’d had a crazy plan to fuck off to California at the end of Black Friday. He, who was a complete _mess_ , had found his string tied with hers, and they’d roped each other into the other’s problems, though neither minded. Neither cared. They were young, reckless, and had a baby sister to raise between the both of them, and it came naturally. She’d wanted to be an actress, and he’d wanted to be her punk boyfriend while Hannah became their mascot. He could only hope, considering he didn’t have access to the window that allowed him to check up on them, that they made it, and things went north instead of south.

He wandered around _all_ of the time, hoping to catch a glimpse of ‘em, maybe with Lexi pushing Hannah on a swing set with her hair all done up wearing a new dress. He knew she loved to feel like a princess, and due to budgets, she never got that freedom, so she stuck to tacky denim and cheap fabrics that didn’t do her worth. She looked good in everything, so he didn’t complain, but she was breath-taking in a dress. However, instead of seeing that, he saw nothing.

Darkness. Light. Glass.

Sometimes he’d hear a scuttle, or a smash, and he’d turn and see a flash of green run by him. He discovered, soon after he’d become a part of The Black and White, that these were the Sniggles. There were eight of the little bastards, and one of them, Pob, looked mysteriously like him. He ranked them in likeability from best to worst, and it went Pob, Blush, Stone, Cat, Spy, Star, Eldy and Moon. Moon flat out _scared_ him. She was the one to creep up on him and pop up like some fucked animatronic. _That_ was Moon, and he hated her.

Occasionally, he’d see their leaders. The son: Wilbur Cross, an ex-colonel of a corrupt military branch who wore either _all_ denim, which was a disgrace against the fashion community, or he wore a striped shirt similar to the one Lex used to wear for her shift at Toy-Zone. Sometimes he’d have an apple, other times he wouldn’t, but where Wilbur went, his friendy-wends were never far away. Next? The father: Wiggly himself. An eldritch god, who, when he’d first encountered him, had nearly frightened himself alive. He was a glowing green monstrosity with thick tentacles that whipped fresh souls, and he had no body. He laughed, and spoke in “uwu,” as Lex used to say, as he watched his victims bleed out on the ground, which thickened the gate from the realm to the new dimension. There was always one other person who was usually forgotten, and she…she was something else. The holy ghost: Linda Monroe, a blonde headed bitch, naturally born brunette, who sought for nothing but the best. She married into wealth, and had affair, after affair, after affair with the craving to be worshipped. When Wilbur swept her from under her feet, she took him, and she landed in his arms in the dimension they were all trapped in with a bright bullet hole against her porcelain skin, and that’s porcelain as in fragile, for her fake tan was just as bad as Wiggly was.

He ran if he ever saw them. Being trapped in a realm, where the only light came from the headlight eyes of a _god_ was scary enough, but to see the three rulers in direct form? It was too much for him. He continued to walk, and he continued to run, some of the Sniggles stopping for brief conversation, and he found that some of them weren’t actually too bad, but were severely underpaid, which made him hate Wiley more, and they’d even guide him to safety.

Safety came in the shape and soul of a muscular general from the united states military, with sandy coloured hair that blew around like a rough spring’s day on a beach. His uniform was black, and under Wiggly’s light, turned purple, and there was the smallest flame that followed him around. An eternal cigarette that never died was always resting in his left hand, as embers fluttered into the blood to create a reaction rare to the human eye.

Was he human? Were _they_ human? He started to doubt that fact when he became filled with excruciating pain one day. The general, John, had tried to keep him calm, but is vision had turned green, and the blood from the wound on his head began to pour more, and he started to drown. It was some sort of vicious attack, and it wasn’t nice to be a part of. John had helped him to his feet, and cupped his face, holding him steady, examining him. “Your eyes, Ethan, they were never green before, were they?”

That was the thing that concerned him more than anything. Green, often associated with the blues and reds and greys, had blue eyes. That was him. Ethan Green had blue eyes, like many members of his family, such as his uncle and his late dad. When John, someone who _also_ had blue eyes, had asked him about his original eye colour, he’d blinked before letting his eyes flicker down to the floor, where he saw a reflection of himself in the blood, and his eyes were glowing, just like the god’s had. He hadn’t known how to react, so when he sunk down to the ground, his jeans becoming blood stained once more, he was met with a comforting arm of the burly man beside him, who ensured he was okay and protected. He trusted John. He seemed to know what was going on, and why they’d wound up there. He liked him.

John had explained that it wasn’t his fault, that it was more or less an illusion, and if it wasn’t, that John was gonna help him back to normal if it were possible. He told Ethan not to freak out, but that was the only thing he’d done when the general told him the only people with green eyes in the realm were under the influence of the god, or were the god.

Linda. Wilbur. Wiggly.

He’d found out the hard way it was a test for Wilbur to use against him. He’d felt like his soul had been forced into someone else’s body, and only _then_ had he got a glimpse of Hatchetfield. Wilbur had used Ethan’s body to patrol, to rule PEIP, but a man in a leather jacket, with a waistcoat half undone, hadn’t condoned it. There’d been a single shot before the vision faded and Ethan was back with John.

He wished he’d have seen more. He wished, even if it were with Wilbur, that he’d have been able to roam as freely as he could. He wanted to light the darkness, he wanted to extinguish the light, he wanted to smash the glass. He wanted to have run to the trailer park to see if they’d made it out, his girls, to see if they were in the news anywhere, to try and see if they were safe. He’d wanted to go to Beanies and see if Alice made it out, and was with Oliver, Deb and the rest of the smoke club. He wanted to go and check up on his uncle, with the knowledge he never dealt well with the loss of a loved one. Ethan knew far too well.

One day, was it a day? Ethan couldn’t tell, with the days flowing into one another with no difference. Darkness never became a sunrise, and the night never glowed with stars. There was only a crimson fruit that flourished beneath them, that fed the likings of the rulers. One _time,_ Ethan found John, who was looking down, and he’d tapped him on the shoulder.

“Sup, homie.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“So, McNaman. What’s vibing?”

“English?” The soldier asked, almost offended, as he looked up from the bleeding carpet on the floor.

“Right, so, anyway,” he said, before he felt a dull pain in his head. “I wanna get out of here.”

“Ethan…” John sighed and brushed his hair behind his ear, pausing like he’d remembered something before shaking his head. “We can’t. You know this.”

“How can’t we?”

“Our souls bonded with the particles that make reality what it is. We can’t be one of them.”

“Why?”

“Because, we have no physical body anymore. We died. A few of my fellow PEIPs retrieved my _dead_ body from here, but immediately went out. They can’t notice a soul. Your body, if lucky, was retrieved before the Lakeside went up in flames. If not…you’re done for.”

“So why can’t we escape?”

“Escape?” John asked, and it caught his attention thoroughly.

“Yeah! It’s like some sort of fucked up escape room, dontcha think, McDonalds?”

“No, I certainly don’t think.”

Ethan scrunched up his nose and decided to take a different tactic. He watched John’s head drop down to where he was looking, and heard a noise that had been all too familiar to him back home, and it was a sight unseen for so long. A muffled sob, covered by the clasp of gritted teeth, hidden by a thick head of hair. Golden hair.

“Johnny? You cryin?” He asked, his voice softer, and McNamara raised his hand, brushing back the hair along with salt water that flowed from the electric blue pools that rained on the clouds of his eyes.

“I figured it out,” he admitted after soft silence, a wavering voice unable to be prevented much longer. He gestured to in front of him as he sat on the ground. “How to view them.”

“Them?” Ethan asked, and he could have sworn he felt a pulse.

John nodded. “Those responsible for Hatchetfield.” The general, who’d had a hidden, stone façade until moments ago, looked up at the younger teen. “Ethan…I think these two are yours.”

Panicked yet excited, he took his seat beside the soldier, who pushed the water out of the way, and Ethan was finally able to glance into the world below him.

Wherever he was peering in, he saw the brightest room in history. There were computers scattered around, and the room looked very sciencey. There was a man, who sat with a leather jacket, and from what Ethan could tell, his waistcoat undone, with shades in his pocket. He wore a band over his ring finger, and there was an image that Ethan couldn’t quite make out, though if he knew any better, it was of him and John. In front of him were two girls. One wearing a flannel, a _green_ flannel, and the other wearing a denim jacket.

_Xander. Hannah. Lex._

* * *

“Thank you for coming in at such a short notice. I appreciate it,” Lieutenant Xander Lee said as he shut the door behind Lex and Hannah, and gestured to the chairs in front of the desk. He took his own seat behind his computer and typed on to a file, loading it as he looked to the girls before him. “Before we start, everything said during this conversation can go on to PEIPs records for assistance on how to bring back Ethan Green?”

“It’s fine,” Lex said, scratching her nose with her thumb, as both her and Hannah shifted in their jackets.

Xander nodded, having not expected a large response from the two. They’d lost Ethan, who was their one ticket out of Hatchetfield, who could support and care for them better than anyone could. Going through a loss that large was bound to have effects on the girls, and with PEIP knowing all about history with their mother as well, it was vital that they got the interview done to try and present the form of Ethan Green back to them, even if it were for a final goodbye.

“What would your full names be?” Xander asked, not looking up from his monitor as he set the microphone to record. He leaned back in his chair, watching as the girls reacted.

“Alexandra Megan Foster, sir. And this is my younger sister, Hannah Renee.”

“And how old would you both be?”

“19 and 10.”

“May you please state your birthdays?”

Lex huffed at that, and he could tell how frustrated she was becoming. “I’m born the 4th August; Hannah is born October 31st.”

“The date of this interview is November 24th, 2019 and following on, all information stated today is disclosed to military branch Paranormal Extra-terrestrial Interdimensional Phenomena starting at 1700 hours. Now, I need to ask you about Ethan. The two of you. I’ll start with the older Foster considering Hannah’s autism.” Xander clasped his hand in his lap and looked at Lex. “Tell me everything you know about him.”

Lex laughed then as she hugged herself. “We were actually partnered in shop together, with Tom Houston. He was rebellious, he was loud, he was a flirt. He slipped me his number, that night we started talking. We went on our first date a month after, and he met Hannah a month after that. He and Hannah bonded like I saw no other. He absolutely fuckin’ adored her, he’d steal shit for her because he wanted her to be safe. He stole for the both of us.” She looked to her feet, which were tapping nervously against the floor. “He had a heart made of gold. He promised to get us to Cali no matter what it took, and he absolutely adored his uncle, even if they never got along. His parents, they died when he was young, so he lacked those figures growin’ up.” She chuckled to herself. “He was born somewhere in Australia, and somehow the accent stuck. When he got really annoyed with himself, it’d come out, and he was hot before but with that accent…” she whistled before her laugh faded. “I wish I could have said my goodbyes before we parted. A proper one. Just a final I love you without the worry of Hannah being okay. I hate how I doubted he’d ran from Hannah, when he’d died. He’d protected her…”

“And I’m correct when I say you miss him?”

Lex nodded and bit her lip. “If I could have him back…I’d give anything to hold him one last time…”

Xander, at that point, turned to the younger of the two. She was holding a plushie of a spider, and had her hair in loose braids, unlike the ones Xander was familiar of seeing her in. He smiled gently and leaned forward, keeping his distance, but making himself smaller as to not intimidate her too much. “You miss Ethan too, huh?”

“Webby protects them,” she said and looked up to meet the lieutenant’s eyes. “Green. Glass. Fall.”

“What do you mean, Hannah?”

“Soon. Find out soon.” She said as she ran her hand over the spider’s fur. “They escape. Altered. No change, only adjust.”

Xander tilted his head and grabbed a notebook, jotting down what Hannah was saying. “This is all to do with Ethan?”

She shook her head and looked back to him. “Mac.”

“Mac?”

At the question, Hannah pointed to the photo of Xander and his husband on the desk. Xander looked back and his heart sank, before he nodded. “I see.”

“Protects Ethan. Together.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

Xander, still trying to piece information together, turned away from them to diagram the pieces he understood, until he heard a soft whimper from Hannah, and as he flicked his head back around, the ceiling collapsed on the other side of the room, and a glow began to form.

“What the fu-“

* * *

“They know we’re here.” Ethan said indefinitely as he stood, tears brimming his eyes. He hadn’t cried since joining The Black and White. “Lex is 19, Hannah’s 10, they know we’re here!” He stood, as did John, as a green glow filled Ethan’s eyes. “Why can’t I be with ‘em! Why can they see me, and I can’t see ‘em all the time? It ain’t fuckin’ fair!”

“He is rather correct,” another voice told them, one much softer than any Ethan had heard during his time in The Black and White, the horrid 366 days he’d spent that had whizzed past like a second. He slowly turned, to see a figure, who towered over them. She had to be hundreds of feet tall, and she certainly wasn’t human.

She had dark skin that had a silver tint to it. Her eyes were the brightest lilac he’d ever seen, and her har was folded into silver strands of silk that formed delicate patterns. Her clothes were of a silver dress, one that fit her body that was floor length, and was simplistic and the minimal detail it did have contained the pattern of a spider’s web. She was bare foot, and she donned a soft smile.

“Meet Webby, Ethan. Guardian of The Black and White, fighter against fire.” John said as he stood and saluted to the figure, who nodded to him.

“Webby’s fuckin’ real? So, Banana never was insane?” He asked, and Webby shook her head.

“Your Hannah is a very special young girl. She has a hole in her heart, one I can’t fill. One that waits for her big brother.” She shut her eyes, and her entire eye turned silver. “You don’t belong here. Neither of you do. Your bodies have decayed, your souls rested in terror. Now, let me give you that second chance.”

A hum filled the air, and the ground beneath John and Ethan opened up. Ethan braced himself to fall, but he didn’t, and instead floated down. As he did, he became tired, and heavy, and let himself rest on the ground. The next time he opened his eyes, Lex had him pulled to his chest and he spluttered back to life as Hannah squealed happily.

“Ethan! Webby bought you home!”

“She sure as fuckin’ hell did, banana split,” he croaked, forgetting being dead had the normal consequences on the human body that he had yet to experience. “Ah, fuck, I’m dying.”

“Don’t joke about that…” Lex sniffled as she rubbed her eyes, and he could tell she was crying.

He smiled though, as he looked to John, who was in the other agent’s arms, the two of them enveloped in their own conversation. He felt his pulse, and he felt himself breathe as a grin formed on his face. “I escaped death, babe, and this time? This time I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

**Author's Note:**

> i've literally never considered webby before but i think she cute anyway magic man with the funny words signing off again and see u tomorrow where i was planning out my entire coffee fic for hatchetober day 6 in the shower-
> 
> also did we like pobs minor return or-
> 
> (and a reminder ethan green would drop kick anyone who stood in his way to get to california <3)


End file.
